Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1887-03-04

though the mountains be cast into the midst
of the sea, though the waters thereof roar
and be troubled, though the mountain shake
with the swelling thereof. Selah."
But my text suggests something in advance
Of anything I have said. We must all quit
this life. However sound our health may be,
it must break down; however good our title
may be to houses, land and estates, we must
surrender them. We will hear a voice bid
ding us away from all these places. We will
have to start on pilgrimage from which we
can never come back. We will have
seen for the last time the evening
star, and watched the last summer
cloud, and felt the breath of the
spring wind for the last time Hands Of
loved ones may be stretched out to hold us
back, but they cannot; go we must. About
all other exits and changes we may trife, but
not about this. Stupendous moment of life
quitting. Oh, when the great tides of eter-
nifty arise about us and fill the soul and sur
round it and sweep it out toward rapture or
VICE. ahl that will be the Swelling Of Jor-
DAM" I know people sometimes talk very
merrily about the departure from this life.
I am sorry to hear it. But men do make fun
of the passage from one world to another.
Byron joked great deal about it, but when
it caqe he shivered with horror Many an
infidel has scored at the IDEA of fearing fu-
ture world, but lying upon his pillow in the
last hour his teeth have chartered with terror.
I saw in Westminster abbey an epitaph
which poet ordered to be put upon his
tomb: .a
Life is a jest,
And all things show it,
Thought SO once,
But now know it.
/ thought how inapt that, in place of
sepulchre, men should try their witticisms. A
great German having rejected Christ, in his
last moment said: "Give me light, give me
light" Oh, we may be smart with our witt
cism about the last hour; but when it comes,
and the tides are rising, and the surf is
beating, and the winds are bowling, we will
each one, my brethren, find for himself that
it is ''the swelling of Jordan" Our natural
courage won't hold out then. However
familiar we may have been with scenes of
mortality, however much we may have
screwed our courage up, we want something
more than natural resources. When the
northeast wind blows off from the sea of
death, it will put out all earthly lights.
The lamp of the Gospel, God lighted, is the
only lamp that can stand in that blast. The
weakest arm holding that shall not be con-
IOuuutu, Une SGIOuStSb Olo I6J0CtluS uudu
shall stumble and die When the Jordan
rises in its wrath the first dash of It's wave
will swamp them forever. We feel how sad
it is for man to attempt this life without
religion. We see what doleful thing it is
for man to go down into the misfortunes of
life without Christian solace; but if that be
so, how much more terrible when that man
comes face to face with the solemnities of the
last hour! Oh, if in the bright sunshine of
health and prosperity man felt the need of
something better, how will he feel when the
shadows of the last hour gather above his
pillow! IT, in the warmth of worldly pros
perity he was sometimes dismayed, how will
he feel when the last chill creeps over him?
If while things were comparatively smooth
he was disquieted, what will he do in the
agonies of dissolution? If, in the land of
peace in which he trusted, they wearied him,
what will he do amid "the swelling of
Jordan?"
Oh, I rejoice to know that so many of
Gods children have gone through that pass
without shudder Some one said to dying
Christian: "Isnt it hard for you to get out
of this world?" ooh, no." he says, Kit is
easy dying, it is blessed dying, it is glorious
dying" and then he pointed 10 a clock on the
wall and he said: "The last two hours in
Which, nave Dceu uyulS3 L nave udu LuOlc
joy then all the years of my life." A general
came into the hospital after the battle. and
there were many seriously wounded, and
there was one man dying, and the general
said: "Ah, my dear fellow, you seem very
much wounded. 1 am afraid you are not
going to get we'll" "No," said the
soldier, II am not going to get well, but
I feel very happy" Oh, have seen them,
and so have you, go out Of this life without
tear on their cheek! There was weeping all
round the room, but no weeping in the bed;
the cheeks were dry. They were not thrown
down into darkness, they were lifted up. We
saw the tides rising around them, and the
swelling of the wave. 1t washed them off
from the cares and tolls of life; it washed
them on toward the beach of heaven. They
waved to us a farewell kiss as they stood on
deck, and floated down further and further,
waited by gales from heaven, until they
were lost to our sight-mortality having be-
come immortality $3.50
LIES duty done, as sinks the clay,
Light from its load the spirit flies;
While heaven and earth combine to say,
How blest the righteous when he dies!
What high consolation to you that your
departed friends were not submerged in the
swelling of Jordan! The Israelites were just
the Jordan, as they had been on the eastern
banks of the Jordan; and our departed Chris
tian friends have only crossed over-not sick,
not dead, not exhausted, not extinguished
not blotted out, but with healthier respira-
ton and stouter pulses, and keener eyesight
and better prospects, crossed over, their sins,
their physical and mental disquiet, all left
clear this side, and eternally flowing, impas-
sable obstacle between them and all human
and satanic pursuit. Crossed over! Oh, I
shake hands of congratulation with all the
bereaved in the consideration that our de-
parted Christian friends are safe!
Why was there years ago SO much joy in
certain circles in New York when people
heard from their friends who were on board
the City of Brussels? It was thought that
vessel had gone to the bottom of the sea- and
when the friends on this side heard that the
steamer had arrived safely in Liverpool, had
we not the right to congratulate the people in
New York that their friends had got safely
across? And is it not right this morning that
I congratulate you that your departed friends
are safe on the shores of heavens Would you
have them back again? Would you have
those old parents back again? You know
how hard it was sometimes for them to get
their breath in the stifed atmosphere of the
summer. would you nave them pacA In Cnls
summer? Didn't they use their brain long
enough? Would you have your children
back again9 Would you have them take the
risk of temptations which throng every
human pathways Would you have them
cross the Jordan three times in addition to
crossing it already, and cross it again to greet
you now, and then cross back afterwards
For certainly you would not want to keep
them forever out of heaven. If they had
lived forty or fifty years longer would they
have been safe? Perhaps so, perhaps not.
Pause and weep, not for the freed from pain.
But that the sigh of love would pull them back
again.
ask a question, and there seems to come
back the answer in heavenly echo: ''What!
will you never be sick again" "Never-sick
-again?" "What! will you never be tired
again?" "Never-tired-agai "What!
will you never weep againg' "Never-weep
again" "Whatl will you never die again?"
"Never-die-again." Oh, We army of de-
parted kindred, we hail you from bank to
bank! Wait for us when the Jordan of death
shall part for us. Come down and meet us
half way between the widowed banks of earth
and the palm groves of heaven.